Classic Films from Japan
A Man Vanishes
(人間蒸発)
This riveting documentary chronicles the missing-person’s case of Tadashi, a Japanese businessman who has vanished into thin air.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1967
- Director Shōhei Imamura
- Cast Yoshie Hayakawa, Shōhei Imamura, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi
- Genre Documentary, Drama
- Available on OVID, Apple TV
Woman in the Dunes
(砂の女)
An entomologist suffers extreme psychological and sexual torture after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1964
- Director Hiroshi Teshigahara
- Cast Eiji Okada, Kyôko Kishida, Ginzô Sekiguchi, Kôji Mitsui, Sen Yano
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Amazon Video
Yearning
(乱れる)
After a bombing raid destroys the family store, Reiko rebuilds and runs the shop out of love stopped short by destruction.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1964
- Director Mikio Naruse
- Cast Hideko Takamine, Yûzô Kayama, Mitsuko Kusabue, Mie Hama, Aiko Mimasu, Yû Fujiki
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
High and Low
(天国と地獄)
A wealthy executive becomes the victim of an extortion plot after his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1963
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Toshirō Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Isao Kimura, Kenjirō Ishiyama
- Genre Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Amazon Video
Immortal Love
(永遠の人)
While her fiancée is away fighting, a woman is raped by a landowner's son and forced into marriage.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1961
- Director Keisuke Kinoshita
- Cast Hideko Takamine, Keiji Sada, Tatsuya Nakadai, Nobuko Otowa, Akira Ishihama, Masakazu Tamura
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
The Naked Island
(裸の島)
The only inhabitants of a small island in the Seto Inland Sea struggle to get by.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1960
- Director Kaneto Shindō
- Cast Nobuko Otowa, Taiji Tonoyama, Shinji Tanaka, Masanori Horimoto
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
(女が階段を上る時)
A middle-aged bar hostess, constantly in debt, is faced with numerous social constraints and challenges.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1960
- Director Mikio Naruse
- Cast Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan, Tatsuya Nakadai, Daisuke Katō, Ganjirô Nakamura II
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
Floating Weeds
(浮草)
Members of a traveling theater troupe meddle in the personal life of the troupe's leader.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1959
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Ganjiro Nakamura, Machiko Kyō, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Ayako Wakao, Haruko Sugimura, Chishū Ryū
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Kanopy
Good Morning
(お早よう)
Two young boys stop speaking in protest when their parents refuse to buy a television set.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1959
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Keiji Sada, Yoshiko Kuga, Chishū Ryū, Kuniko Miyake, Haruko Sugimura, Kôji Shitara
- Genre Comedy, Family, Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV
Tokyo Twilight
(東京暮色)
Two sisters discover the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot take the truth of being abandoned as a child.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1957
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishū Ryū, Isuzu Yamada, Teiji Takahashi, Masami Taura
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Tubi TV
Street of Shame
(赤線地帯)
The daily personal dramas of five women employed as sex workers in Tokyo’s Yoshiwara district.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1956
- Director Kenji Mizoguchi
- Cast Machiko Kyō, Aiko Mimasu, Ayako Wakao, Michiyo Kogure, Kumeko Urabe, Yasuko Kawakami
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
Floating Clouds
(浮雲)
Returning to Japan following WWII, Yukiko hopes to continue an affair started during wartime, but realizes the man won’t divorce his wife.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1955
- Director Mikio Naruse
- Cast Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori, Mariko Okada, Isao Yamagata, Chieko Nakakita, Daisuke Katō
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
Early Summer
(麦秋)
28-year-old Noriko's parents pressure her to marry in postwar Japan.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1951
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Setsuko Hara, Chishū Ryū, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake, Ichirô Sugai, Chieko Higashiyama
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV
Stray Dog
(野良犬)
During a sweltering summer, a rookie detective searches Tokyo’s streets for his stolen Colt pistol.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1949
- Director Akira Kurosawa
- Cast Toshirō Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji, Eiko Miyoshi, Noriko Sengoku, Noriko Honma
- Genre Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Available on fuboTV, Criterion Channel, Crackle, Tubi TV, Plex
Dragnet Girl
(非常線の女)
In this silent gangster film, a career criminal is drawn to a sweet, strait-laced girl much to the ire of his longtime moll.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1933
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Kinuyo Tanaka, Joji Oka, Sumiko Mizukubo, Kōji Mitsui, Yumeko Aizome, Chishū Ryū
- Genre Crime, Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max